


Jealousy

by artemisscribe



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: all astronauts are film nerds, and so are formally evil artificial intelligences, conversations about friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 03:18:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9216272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemisscribe/pseuds/artemisscribe
Summary: John discovers that Captain O'Bannon and EOS have bonded. And honestly he feels a little left out.





	

“No EOS?” Ridley asks as the airlock opens.

“ _Hi John, how are you? So lovely to see you_ ,” John says sarcastically, waving her into Thunderbird Five.

“Hello John,” Ridley repeat, rolling her eyes, “How are you? So lovely to see you. Where’s EOS?”

John smiles, spinning slowly as they float through to the heart of the station, “She doesn’t like annual maintenance,” he explains, “Something about ‘ _how would you like it if I rummaged about in your servers and messed with your circuit boards’_ even though rummaging through servers has very little to do with circuit boards, and annual maintenance has very little to do with either.”

“Aw, poor grumpy code bug” Ridley smiles, feeling sorry for EOS, “You’re so mean to her.”

“I am not!” John insists, getting defensive, “Anyway are you here to see me or EOS?”

“Oh you obviously,” Ridley reassures him, “But she’s nice to talk to, and it’s not the same reaching your airlock without her HAL9000 impression.”

“Wait what?” John asks as they reach the gravity ring, his feet touching the glass floor with a solid thud, “What do you mean HAL9000?”

“From 2001: A Space Odyssey” Ridley says with a frown, puzzled by his confusion,

“Yeah, I know the _movie_ Ridley, I’m an astronaut.” John says, trying to clarify, “EOS doesn’t do impressions.”

“Yes she does” Ridley insists, “She’s really good at them too. Not playing back recordings, she modulates her own voice, you can still tell it’s her but she’s got a knack for mimicry. It’s hilarious.”

He’s not jealous. He’s _not._ But he will admit to being just a little bit hurt that EOS has an in-joke with someone who isn’t him. They have their own little world up here, and he’s become uncharacteristically protective of it over the short time they’ve been together. He will admit that it’s a good sign that she seems to find enjoyment in socializing, but at the same time, “How come she doesn’t do that with me?” he asks, not realising how petulant he sounds until the words have left his mouth.

Ridley raises her eyebrows and tries her hardest to suppress a smirk. She fails. “Is that _jealousy_ I hear Thunderbird Five?”

“No!” John replies a little too quickly, speeding up as they walk to the station’s galley, trying to get ahead of her so she doesn’t see the blush of embarrassment flushing his cheeks. But Ridley keeps up with him, and he’s got nowhere to hide,

“It _is!_ ” she gasps, “Oh John, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to steal her from you, I promise.”

He gives her a bashful look, leaning against a cabinet, “No, I know that,” he assures her, “I’m just curious as to why she’d keep something from me.”

“Remind me again how you ended up with this delinquent AI claiming asylum in your servers?” Ridley asks pointedly.

John frowns, “Well I-” he starts, and then it dawns on him, “She... tried to kill me.”

“And then?” Ridley prompts,

“Impersonated me to keep my bothers from getting suspicious” John continues, starting to understand now.

“Maybe she thinks a HAL9000 impression is in poor taste,” Ridley shrugs, “Considering your history together.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way” John admits, “And, I’ve never actually told anyone this, but when she shut me out in space and I was trying to get her to let me in she _did_ do the whole ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do that Dave’ thing.”

“ _Really?_ ” Ridley gasps, her hand going to her mouth to stop herself from laughing, more out of shock than anything else,

“Yeah, except she didn’t call me Dave,” he quickly adds, “She did use my name.”

“Murdered by a secret film geek AI,” Ridley says, slightly awed by the prospect, “What a way to go!”

“Well not _that_ secret,” John argues, “We have movie night. She’s very opinionated.”

“She is?” Ridley asks,

“Twice now we’ve had a rescue call during her favourite film,” John says, smiling fondly at the memory, “ _Not_ a happy bunny let me tell you.”

“She has a favourite movie?” Ridley asks, grinning like this is the best news she’s had all day, which it is. EOS is endlessly fascinating to her.

“Oh yeah,” John says, “She loves classic cinema”

“What is it?” Ridley asks, "Her favourite film?"

John just smirks, “I’ll give you three guesses” he says, holding up three fingers to emphasise his point. It’s a challenge, and one thing he knows about Captain O’Bannon is she can never resist a challenge.

Ridley considers her options, cycling through some of John’s preferred favourites and the last ten minutes of conversation, looking for some sort of clue. “Hmmm, _classic_ cinema you say?” she asks, picking that line out as useful information.

“I did” he nods.

The Godfather? Citizen Kane? But then what does John consider classic cinema? He would certainly have The Wrath Of Khan on his list, even if a film critic would disagree with him. The obvious answer would be 2001, since EOS is so fond of quoting it, but then if she watched that with John then she’d most likely be comfortable quoting it to him too.

Then she has a thought; EOS’s humanity is what makes her remarkable and the most human thing to do with films is to look for yourself, more importantly an idealised version of yourself and suddenly it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Oh my god, it’s _Wall-E_ isn’t it?” Ridley asks with baited breath,

“Yep!” John says, laughing and then Ridley can’t help but laugh too.

“Oh that is the most adorable thing I have ever heard” she says, clutching her hands to her heart out of sheer affection for the eccentric little program.

“Isn’t it just?” John grins

“She is the cutest thing.” Ridley agrees, a little jealous of John for getting to spend his days with something as remarkable as a growing and evolving artificial consciousness.

“I mean she’s also powerful enough to destroy the entire human race if she ever gets bored of us,” John points out, only half joking, “but yeah she’s pretty cute.”

“Well then don’t be boring John,” Ridley warns him “The fate of humanity depends on your hosting skills.”

At that John pulls a face, “So we’re all doomed then?” he asks

“Pretty much, yeah” she agrees.

“Well then we better get in another match,” he says, leading her towards the storage module they use as a handball court, “Maybe you can let me win just once before I accidentally cause the apocalypse?”

“Not on your life Tracy” she grins, kicking off the floor to let the microgravity of the storage module take hold of her.

“Yeah,” John sighs as he follows her, “I thought you’d say that.”

 

He’s still smarting from losing 3 games to nothing when one of the cameras whirs to life with that familiar ring of white lights, “You need to protect your left flank if you’re going to have any chance of beating her.” EOS says primly,

“Thanks for the advice” John says ruefully, “Wait so you’ve been listening today?”

There is a long pause before EOS responds to him, “Lady Penelope says that one shouldn’t give incriminating answers without legal representation.”

“Eaves dropping is bad manners EOS.”

“So is jealousy John.”

“Aha!” John cries, “So you _were_ listening?”

“...Maybe” EOS admits, reluctantly, “Do my conversations with Captain O’Bannon upset you?”

“No!” John says, hurriedly, “I was just surprised. You’re allowed to have friends EOS. Everyone deserves friends.”

“So you weren’t jealous?”

“I was a little bit jealous” he admits.

“Don’t be jealous John.” EOS says, “You’re the only one I ever tried to space.”

“Oh EOS” John laughs, “We both know _that’s_ not true.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Akireyta for giving me EOS's "You're the only one I tried to space." line


End file.
